Powersaving options for Puppy 4.1

[dickieblack]

Hi All,

I've decided to use Puppy 4.1 as the primary distro on my Dell X1. To this end, I'd like to customise it to remove/disable unnecessary modules and set up some power saving options. If necessary, I might try recompiling the kernel with specific options for this hardware to speed up booting.

The main things I would like advice on are:

Which modules can I safely get rid of? The X1 is a fanless, netbook sized device with no parallel or serial ports. I don't use a modem either. Am I safe to simply blacklist the fan, lp, parport and parport_pc modules? Are there others in the standard boot that I might not need?

I have already added the p4_clockmod and cpufreq_conservative modules to enable dynamic cpu scaling, as mentioned in another post. Are there other laptop/acpi modules around that I could make use of? Also, is there a way to power down the network card? In windows, there is a utility that detects if it is connected and if not, turns it off when on battery. Is there a method to do something similar in Puppy? Also, is there a way to make use of the fn+f2 key combo which is supposed to turn off/on the wireless devices?

I won't bother asking about suspend & hibernate, as I know they are "troublesome"...

The laptop also has built in compact flash and sd card slots. The yenta_socket module loads fine, but I'd like to be able to load puppy of the CF card. I've had some advice before, and had some success with the pfix=pcmcia boot option, but if I can get pcmcia support into vmlinuz then I can load the initrd off the CF card, which hopefully be quicker and use less power.

On a related note, I'm trying to find a way to power down the internal HD. There is no BIOS option for this and when booting of a usb flash drive the HD spins constantly, even when it isn't mounted. If someone could point me to the right acpi options, that would be a start. I'd also like to find a way to force puppy into writing changes to the pup_save file like it does with a usb flash drive. I realise that if I get the machine to load of the CF card it will do this anyway, but if I don't use that method I'd like to be able to minimise HD writes and spin ups. If Puppy runs entirely in RAM, I can surely get a lot more run time ut of my battery.

I realise I've asked a lot here, but hopefully there are some folks out there with answers, or even just some ideas about where to look!

Thanks,

Richard

[Ray MK]

hi

This may be of interest - the fastest puppy on the planet?
I have not tried it yet but intend to.

http://www.diddywahdiddy.net/Puppy400/blackbox.pet

Let us know what you think

best regards - Ray

[dickieblack]

Thanks,

I have coincidentally just found this thread http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=34474 which points to a description of this package.

Will give it a try later today. I'm very interested in getting Puppy to boot fast, especially after reading about the Intyel Dev guys who got to a full X desktop in less than 5 seconds!

If anyone has any other advice regarding the other things in the OP, I'd be very greatful.

Richard